62 newyork| february1–14, 2021
TheCULTUREPAGES
She beginswithanapology forher
technologicalstrugglesandforbeinglate.
(“I wasjust lyinginbedanxiety-ingabout
it!”)Clarkisananxiousperson,andshe
hideshernervesundera slightlyfrantic
mixofself-deprecationandhumor. She
tellsmeshewasa littlerelievedwhen
she learned,inMarch,that thepresstour
forSaintMaudwouldbecanceledand
thefilm’sreleasedelayed.(It’sfinallyin
theatersnow, tobefollowedbya mid-
Februarystreamingrelease.) Playingthe
leadinanA24 film(Moonlight,Lady
Bird,UncutGems) is like levelingupinto
a newechelonofstardom.Theproduc-
tion house has been a launchpadforsuch
actresses as Anya Taylor-Joy, Saoirse
Ronan, and Florence Pugh. Theideaof
scores of interviews and glad-handingin
Los Angeles felt destabilizing. “Whenall
the wonderful stuff happens, itcanfeel
like you’re in a storm and the wavesare
taking you every which way,” Clarksays.
Over the past few years, the 31-year-old
has steadily accumulated capitalinthe
industry. In the summer of 2018,she
moved from London back into her
parents’ home outside Cardiff while
working simultaneously on threeproj-
who communes with God while strug-
gling with mental illness in a run-down
English seaside town. The film follows
the caretaker and the American cancer
patient she becomes obsessed with sav-
ing (portrayed by an elegant and biting
Jennifer Ehle). Critics have lauded Clark’s
performance as “nerve-shredding” and
“mesmeric.” Maud is disturbed and dis-
turbing, and much of that comes through
in Clark’s expressive face and increasingly
mutilated body. Clark says she found the
character in the physical details: “Watch-
ing her do things to herself—like pick a
scab—was the horror.”
Glass first noticed Clark in 2016’s Jane
Austen adaptation Love & Friendship.
(At the time, the director was working as
an usher at the London theater where the
film premiered.) Glass had written her
protagonist as oddly tall and more out-
wardly abnormal, and the diminutive
Clark was one of the last actresses to audi-
tion for the role. The film’s financiers were
concerned she was too sweet, but the
director liked that she brought an inno-
cence and softness to the character that
she could play against. Eventually, she
convinced them Clark could deliver the
requisite horror by having her perform a
dialogue-free scene in which she “thrashes
around on the floor for a while.”
To prepare for the role, Clark studied
MattSpicer’sIngridGoesWestandRoman
Polanski’sRepulsion.Shealsokeptcom-
ingbacktoIngmarBergman’sThrougha
GlassDarkly,whichbothGlassandEter-
nalBeautydirectorCraigRobertshad
suggestedshewatch.Shewasinspiredby
thewaysthosefilmsdealwithterror.
“Whenthefearis sorealyoucouldeasily
bedominatedbyit,” Clarkexplains.Glass
and Robertswerebothdrawnto the
actress’s ability touse herporcelain
veneertohidea frayingmind.“Thoseare
thekindofpartsa lotofactorswantto
have:thecharactersthat seemcalmon
thesurfacebutareTravisBickleinside,”
Robertssays.“She’s abletogetmoments
inthesilencewithherreactions.It’sa gift
thatshehas.”
ClarkhasADHD, andthestagewasthe
first placeit didn’t feellike a burden.She
struggledina traditionalclassroomset-
tingand,at age 16,droppedoutofher
Welsh-language school,spendingthenext
yearvolunteeringbothasa teacher’s assis-
tantandona farm.Shetriedtofinishher
A levelsinchemistryandhopedtobecome
a midwife,buttheclassroomenvironment
onceagainoverwhelmedher. Hermother
couldseethepsychictollthat attempting
tofocuswastakingonClark’schildhood,
soshegavehermental-healthdays,onThese days, the Welsh actress Morfydd Clark frequently
wakes up disoriented, wondering how she got here. Her first leading
role, in A24’s latest horror film, Saint Maud, earned her rave advance
reviews last year, but as far as the public is concerned, it doesn’t yet
exist. Just before the pandemic began, she had moved to the North
Island of New Zealand—now one of the only countries in the world to
have successfully tempered the spread of covid-19—for a role in
Amazon’s billion-dollar Lord of the Rings series. Not far from the set
are mammoth green mountains, a 500-foot waterfall, and a bubbling
mud pool. “It’s hard to decipher what is real and what is a dream,” Clark
tells me over a video call. She can’t figure out how to turn off her virtual
background, which has applied a distorting effect to her face. As we
speak, I am confronted bysixeyesandtenbrows.MorfyddClarkinSaintMaud.PHOTOGRAPH: COURTESY OF A24 FILMSects: the black comedy Eternal Beauty,
Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History
of David Copperfield, and HBO’s His
Dark Materials. The following year, Saint
Maud and Copperfield premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival. Up
until then, Clark had spent half a decade
playing minor roles in small films, TVseries, and the occasional stage perfor-
mance. The auditions felt like a hundred
first dates, but when she read the Saint
Maud script, she instantly connected
with it. In the debut feature from writer-
director Rose Glass, she plays Maud, a
radically devout Christian hospice nurse